The Mix Tape, Vol. 91
Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Vol. 91 of The Mix Tape newsletter, mixing writing, content + pr strategy, Apple nerdness, and … various one-hit wonders.
This week’s Mix:
Use data to supercharge your storytelling
Your favorite iPad resources
The case for inbox infinity
The Great Online Game
This week’s Florida photo
Use data to supercharge your Storytelling
Apple may be winning its court case with Epic, but the App Store is taking a beating in the court of public opinion.
Earlier this week, though, Apple public relations fought back with a release detailing the company’s efforts to protect users and prevent fraud.
How can data help you support your PR position? Let’s learn from Apple.
Here are a few techniques Apple used—and some it could have used—to integrate data into its storytelling in its latest App Store press release.
Your favorite iPad resources
The new iPad Pro cometh soon, so I’m working on a list: 101 free iPad resources.
I’m going to promote it to drive additional signups for The Mix Tape. But you, of course, get up-front and in-progress access to the list.
I hope you’ll help me make it better.
I’m looking for your favorite and free iPad-related resources such as:
Apps
Newsletters
How-to articles
How-to videos
Guides
Tweets + threads
Reddit posts and threads
For example: Fernando Silva lives in Tampa and has an iPad-focused YouTube channel. This is a man after my own heart.
He put together on what to expect—and what to hope for—with iPadOS 15. It made the list.
Please do me a favor, because I want to build this list to 101 items: hit reply and share your favorites with me.
I appreciate it.
The case for inbox infinity
Our producitivy-obsessed culture worships the Inbox Zero concept: processes to keep that annoying little number of unread messages at zero.
Spencer Hall, one of my favorite college football writers, has other ideas: Inbox Infinity:
Use email the way that your boss uses email: Do not file, organize, or tag anything. Not one damn thing.
The person in charge of your work at the highest level uses Gmail’s search function for everything. I repeat: For everything. When they catch up on emails, they answer what they need to answer. They disregard the “unread” numbers, and go on with their lives of actually doing things.
And Hall says marking emails as “read” is cheating:
It’s one thing to hide from them, yes. But it’s far more enlightened to live with them and remember how pointless they are, and what constant vigilance is required to protect the time you have.
I’m on this team—I might even be the captain—but I never realized it until now.
To infinity and beyond, indeed.
The Great Online Game
Packy McCormick has quickly built a large reader base (~48K) for his “Not Boring” newsletter. So when he wrote about how to play and win “The Great Online Game,” I couldn’t wait to read the article.
It did not disappoint:
The Great Online Game is free to play, and it starts simply: by realizing that you’re playing a game. Every tweet is a free lottery ticket. That’s a big unlock.
McCormick shares not his just his personal story of audience growth—life-changing audience growth—but a diverse set of other people and examples.
One in particular: Miami mayor Francis Suarez:
Since responding “How can I help?” to Delian’s tweet in December, Suarez has pulled a ton of high-growth companies into his city. He’s become the go-to example of how to grow a city by playing the Great Online Game.
There are many ways to play the game, and you can define for yourself what it means to win.
This week’s Florida photo
I should write something pithy here about walking your own path or whatever. Instead, let’s just enjoy the photo taken at Little Manatee River State Park.
Welcome to four new subscribers
As always, thank you for reading and sharing.
And let me know about your favorite iPad resources. The list is growing.